| Topic: |
Science > Abortion |
| User: |
"J Young" |
| Date: |
23 Mar 2006 12:07:35 AM |
| Object: |
Teen Sex, Poverty Are Inextricably Linked |
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=13439
by Janice Shaw Crouse
Out-of-wedlock pregnancy has long been a sure route for high school girls to
drop out of school and end up in poverty. Likewise, the far left has long
considered that the solutions to teen pregnancy are (in order of
preference): 1) school-based sex education and condom distribution, 2)
federally funded abortion-on-demand, and 3) welfare benefits as a substitute
for a husband and father.
Proving the axiom that we get more of what we pay for in terms of public
policies based on the left's solutions, the nation saw dramatic increases in
teen pregnancies, a proliferation of federal grants to sex-ed providers,
skyrocketing abortion rates, and burdensome taxes as the welfare rolls
expanded. A whole industry developed to provide a rationale for the
existence of poverty and to demand generous government income assistance
(cash, food stamps, housing and medical care) for those mired in dependency.
In fact, poverty is still considered a cause of teen childbearing among
those who argue that young girls without any hope for a future find
emotional compensation through having a child. Those same experts admit that
dropping out of high school and having a baby means more poverty,
particularly among the "underclass" in black inner-city communities. The
vicious cycle of poverty, say the leftist experts, is exacerbated by limited
job opportunities for young black men. Further, they argue, poverty results
from racial discrimination combined with the perils of easy money from
dealing drugs. These arguments constitute the prevailing indisputable
"truth" among many of the experts who study poverty.
Experience, however, has shown that the relationship between unwed teen
pregnancy and poverty is a lot more complicated than the scenarios developed
by the left. Moreover, government-funded abortion and income assistance
have not broken the vicious cycle between unwed childbearing and poverty.
Two things stand out in the most recent trends in the poverty rate of black
children and the unwed-teen birth rate for black females aged 15-19. First,
it is clear that, contrary to the old conventional (read liberal) wisdom,
the trends in poverty and unwed childbearing have often moved in opposite
directions. If poverty were the dominant cause of unwed childbearing, we
would expect to see the two trends move together. Second, since 1991 we have
witnessed an unprecedented decrease in black unwed-teen childbearing: In
1991 the unwed birthrate for blacks was almost 108 per thousand, but by 2003
the rate had dropped to 62 per thousand.
While these trends repudiate the liberal axioms, another fact deals a death
blow to liberal policy. The 42 percent drop in black unwed-teen childbearing
did not occur because of an increase in the availability of abortions.
Instead, to the dismay of Planned Parenthood, the number of abortion
providers has been declining.
The facts behind the decline in the unwed-black-teen birthrate are
completely contrary to the expectations of liberals; the Centers for Disease
Control reported, "During 1991-2001, the percentage of U.S. high school
students who ever had sexual intercourse and the percentage who had multiple
sex partners decreased." For black female teens, the percent ever having
sexual intercourse dropped from 81 percent in 1991 to 61 percent in 2001,
and the percent currently sexually active declined from 59 percent in 1991
to 47 percent in 2001. With sexual activity of teens decreasing, both the
abortion rate and the unwed-teen birthrate have decreased.
Still, some die-hards persist in claiming that the abstinence message of
self-control is unrealistic.
Along with the decline in the unwed-black-teen birthrate, the growth in the
number of black female-headed households leveled off-trends that heretofore
had persisted for more than 20 years (the number of black female-headed
families with children was the same in 2004 as it was in 1993). All during
the 1970s and 1980s, the poverty rate of these single-mother households
hovered around 60 percent, but with the sharp reductions in the
unwed-black-teen birthrate in the 1990s, their poverty rate declined for 10
years to a historic low of less than 41 percent in 2001. Since the onset of
the recession in 2001, the single-mother poverty rate has made a modest
increase of only 2.6 percentage points.
As it turns out, it is the worldview of the liberals, progressives,
feminists and welfare advocates that has proved to be unrealistic.
The history of the 1970s and 1980s clearly contradicts the notion that there
could ever be enough abortions and welfare benefits to counter the
snowballing effects of irresponsible sexual behavior. As the message of
abstinence took hold, the tide began to change. Add to that changing tide
the "realistic" 1996 welfare policy reforms, which ended public assistance
as an entitlement and made it a temporary lifeboat rather than a permanent
lifestyle.
When welfare benefits were limited to five years at a maximum (two years in
many states), and when a child conceived during a welfare spell no longer
meant a larger welfare check, the rolls declined by 60 percent. Notice,
too, that unwed-black teens' share of all unwed-black births trended
downward with the adoption of welfare reform in 1996.
The expectation of and demand for responsible behavior-as opposed to the old
liberal ideas that people are victims helplessly at the mercy of their
environment-has brought a new day of hope to the lives of millions. With
that hope has come greater personal responsibility and progress; despite the
recession of the opening days of this decade, black child poverty is lower
today than it ever was during the heyday of liberal social welfare policy in
the 1970s and 1980s, and poor black children are a smaller percentage of all
poor children than ever before.
With the rebirth of the American creed of personal responsibility and
self-reliance, millions in the so-called "underclass"-millions of those
written off by liberals as hopelessly in need of a government dole-have
found jobs and are recovering the American dream of independence and
self-respect. A true "realistic" worldview-one that sees us all as endowed
by our Creator with the possibility of choosing what is right and good-has
produced a hope for a new future for all those previously thought trapped by
poverty.
--
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" The truth shall set you free "
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| User: "£Æ§-E A R T H L I N G" |
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| Title: Re: Teen Sex, Poverty Are Inextricably Linked |
23 Mar 2006 02:07:37 AM |
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"J Young" <youngopinions@aol.com> wrote in message
news:ZbSdnbZUuNqjpr_ZRVn-uQ@giganews.com...
" The truth shall set you free "
I guess you aren't too free, then since you only poast lies.
The President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation,
Cecilia Fire Thunder said, "I will personally establish a Planned
Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine
Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no
jurisdiction."
Are all Indian reservations this politically liberal? How come everyone
seems to have better government than we do?
Oh, and this:
State Senators like Bill Napoli of Rapid City, SD, set of a maelstrom of
protests within the state with his stated case of "simple rape," there
should be no thoughts of ending a pregnancy. Letters by the hundreds
appeared in local newspapers, mostly written by women, challenging Napoli's
description of rape as "simple."
They really are a bunch of Taliban.
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| User: "A Veteran for Peace" |
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| Title: Re: Teen Sex, Poverty Are Inextricably Linked |
23 Mar 2006 01:44:12 PM |
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In article <dHsUf.41235$_S7.31880@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com>,
"£Æ§-E A R T H L I N G" <never@bush.net> wrote:
The President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation,
Cecilia Fire Thunder said, "I will personally establish a Planned
Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine
Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no
jurisdiction."
Are all Indian reservations this politically liberal? How come everyone
seems to have better government than we do?
Planned Parenthood does more to prevent the need for abortion than
anything.
their mottoe; "Let every child be wanted"
an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
--
I'm unfettered,unbound,triumphant,glorious& splendid
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| User: "nuwsguy" |
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| Title: Re: Teen Sex, Poverty Are Inextricably Linked |
23 Mar 2006 02:16:04 AM |
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J Young wrote:
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=13439
Ok, now let's find out the real cause and cure.
British Medical Journal
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/320/7238/842
Health professionals may reduce the harmful effects of deprivation and
poor education on risk of teenage pregnancy by improving access to
effective health education and contraceptive services.
http://www.texnews.com/texas97/preg122397.html
Sex education appears helpful in Travis County's teen pregnancy decline
AUSTIN (AP) - Junior high school students are learning about armpit
hair, reproductive organs and why a guy shouldn't pinch a girl's
behind.
Young men meet regularly to talk about college and careers, and about
how becoming a teen-age father could jeopardize those plans.
Adults are being trained on how to answer awkward questions from their
children, ranging from a 4-year-old's "Why were you and mommy naked
last night?" to a teen-ager's "How do I know if I'm homosexual?"
Many social service agencies in Austin and Travis County are using
these and other approaches in an effort to address root causes of
teen-age pregnancy. Their hope is to help push down teen pregnancy
rates by touching all aspects of youngsters' lives, including job
opportunities, family relations, academic achievement, recreation,
abstinence and contraception.
Some researchers and advocates say the work may be paying off.
The teen-age pregnancy rate in Travis County, although still one of the
highest among Texas' biggest counties, dropped more than 8 percent
between 1995 and 1996, according to the most recent numbers from the
Texas Department of Health.
The 1996 rate, 46.1 pregnancies per 1,000 girls age 13-17, is the
lowest since 1988, when the rate was 39.5, the Austin
American-Statesman reported Monday.
Statewide, the rate has dropped from 42.5 in 1992 to 40.3 in 1996.
Nationwide, the number of live births to teens aged 15-19 dropped
steadily from 60.7 in 1991 and to 56.8 in 1995. A national teen
pregnancy number was not available.
"This is something that is exceptional. It doesn't happen very often,
anywhere," said Ellen Sanchez, education manager for Planned
Parenthood, which sends its Teen Life company to schools to perform
skits about sexuality and relationships. "(It's) a culmination of a
communitywide effort that's been going on."
Added Kathey Pendleton of Austin Crisis Pregnancy Center, "I'd like to
think we had a lot to do with it."
While people are optimistic that prevention programs are working, state
Health Department statisticians have no way of quantifying the effect.
Janet Lawson, director of the TDH Women's Health Division, says, "Of
course I'm happy the rates are falling, but many of the problems that
initiate the rates are still there. So this problem is not going to go
away. I don't want people to be reassured prematurely."
Texas Health Commissioner Reyn Archer cautions against assuming any one
particular approach is working, and says the problem must be fought
from a multitude of directions. The state just distributed $4.9 million
in federal money for abstinence-only programs throughout Texas.
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| User: "Attila" |
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| Title: Re: Teen Sex, Poverty Are Inextricably Linked |
23 Mar 2006 09:29:39 AM |
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On Thu, 23 Mar 2006 01:07:35 -0500, "J Young" <youngopinions@aol.com>
in alt.abortion with message-id <ZbSdnbZUuNqjpr_ZRVn-uQ@giganews.com>
wrote:
More off topic spam
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